Probably one of the most talked about forms of alternative fuel use is the electric car. This car is a conversion of a standard gasoline car, meaning that from the outside it looks like any other car but inside it has completely different parts. Being that the electric car does not run on any type of fossil fuel it has several advantages, most being environmental, with a few economic values. However, being that the electric car is created from a standard gasoline car it does come with many disadvantages, most stemming from the notion of inconvenience.

The electric cars that are being used on the road today are actually converted standard gasoline cars. Because of this there are several features that are different between the two. To begin with the gasoline engine is replaced with an electric motor that is powered by a controller that gets it power from rechargeable batteries.

Probably the most essential part of the electric car is the controller. The controller, as its name would imply, controls how much power is given to the electric motor.

To start, the accelerator is connected to a set of potentiometers. When the accelerator is pushed it sends a signal to the potentiometers, which then sends a signal to the controller, essentially telling it how much power it needs to deliver to the motor. To be safe, there are two potentiometers installed in the car. This way the controller can double check to make sure that the signal coming through that says to accelerate or stop is correct. If for some reason they are not the same signal, the controller defaults to idle and does not operate.

When the controller receives the signal to accelerate it takes 300 volts DC (direct current) from the battery pack and converts it to 240 volts AC (alternating circuit) to send to the motor. In order to do this a set of transistors is used. The transistors quickly turn the batteries' voltage on and off creating a sine wave.

However, none of this would be possible without the use of batteries. These batteries power the controller which drives the motor. Yet, when the batteries die, in order to continue to use the car, the batteries will have to be recharged. The process behind recharging the batteries entails using a charger that sends as much charge as possible to the battery without raising the temperature and monitors the amount of voltage entering the battery making sure it doesn't damage the battery during recharging.

The electric car offers many advantages with its environmental friendliness, and economic stability.

First, electric cars are extremely safe to use for the environment. Being that they use absolutely no fossil fuels to power on the motor, they produce no carbon dioxide emissions, and do not add the ever increasing problem of global warming.

Also, electric cars are very cost efficient. The price per mile of gasoline is approximately thirty cents. The price per mile of electricity is around four cents. This is much lower than the price of gasoline. Being that electricity is more environmentally stable than fossil fuels, means that it will be around for much longer than gasoline and the price will more or less stay the same.

Despite the electric car's resounding popular of recent times, the car comes with many disadvantages. Many of these disadvantages deal with the overall inconvenience of owning and operating an electric car.

To start, electric cars are not produced by any major car dealership. All electric cars are converted from standard gasoline cars, making them very difficult to own one.

Also, even after a standard gasoline car has been converted it is usually very bulky and heavy. The batteries weigh almost 1,100 pounds and need to be replaced every three to four years.

On top of that electric cars do not travel very far in between recharges. They generally only get fifty miles per trip and takes about twelve hours to recharge afterwards. To recharge the car, a power source is needed, and generally when you need one, it cannot be found. Also, the car only can travel about sixty miles per hour, not exactly the quickest method of travel.